Last February, Google was hit by a class-action lawsuit over failings with the microphone and speakers of the original Pixel smartphone. Now the company has agreed to pay up to $500 to Pixel owners for a total settlement of $7.25 million, assuming the court agrees.
If it does, there are four levels of compensation for American Pixel and Pixel XL owners who purchased up to January 4 2017. Because Google acknowledged the fault at the time – a “hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec” that the company claimed affected less than 1% of devices – some owners returned the phone under warranty for a replacement, only to get another defective one in return. They’re entitled to the full $500.
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Those who had just the one defective device could get up to $350, and anybody who paid an insurance deductible could have that reimbursed. Even happy Pixel customers with no issues to speak of could get $20, which feels like a win-win.
If you’re getting a sense of deja vu here, that may be because Google settled a similar suit earlier this year, agreeing to pay Nexus 6P owners who got caught in the bootloop bug a cumulative $9.75 million. Not a huge amount to a company of Google’s resources, but an uncomfortable sum all the same.
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As the court hasn’t agreed to the settlement arrangement yet, there’s still time to sign up for updates here before the June 5 settlement hearing date. Well, in theory anyway: the website seems to be having difficulties at the time of writing – hopefully for Google that’s not thanks to the sheer weight of disgruntled Pixel owners jockeying for their piece of settlement pie.
Did you suffer from Pixel microphone issues? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
